Breaking down various hemp products

After a long-standing break, humanity has again started to shift its attention to the potential for hemp along a number of commercial and therapeutic lines. Though somewhat attached to the stigma associated with cannabis sativa, hemp has no euphoric properties and has for thousands of years been an integral part of society. The list of items – clothing, food and drink, health and beauty products – that hemp is now incorporated into is extensive.

First, hemp can be used for its cannabinoids. Like cannabis, hemp houses vital cannabinoids, namely CBD, that can be extracted and used across a range of applications. From lotions and balms to beauty products, hemp is more than ever being sold and used as an herbal remedy. These products can often be found in health stores, alongside other supplements and over-the-counter therapy aids.1

There is a new wave of companies that claim hemp as a superfood. These product lines often sell hemp seeds, which are reported to have tremendous health benefits, as their primary product. Other popular hemp-infused food and drink products includes herbal teas, energy bars, beer, and even pet treats.2

In addition to its raw seeds being consumed more readily by patients and consumers, hemp seed oil and hemp flour are used more often in healthy recipes. The latter is a gluten free source of energy that is 33% protein. For a person who grapples with gluten or dairy allergies, hemp seed flour can serve as an optimum alternative when baking and cooking.

A new spin on an old tradition, hemp is being used to make shirts, pants, sunglasses, jackets and shoes, to name a handful. Large companies like Adidas have even labelled their hemp campaigns as eco-friendly, touting their hemp line as the future of a new industry. One of their latest models, fittingly incorporates hemp into one the company’s oldest designs.3

Some of the most recent advances in the hemp space include cleaning products, cleansers, sunscreen, and essential and massage oil. There are now hemp-based automobiles and dog toys, curtains and detergent. The list of applications for the use of hemp is nearly as extensive as the imagination is limitless.

Like cannabis, its psychoactive relative, hemp is something of an enigma with a world of potential waiting to be explored. As cultivating the plant for its cannabinoids, but also its commercial and industrial benefits becomes more common, the prospect of hemp again becoming a crop grown openly, and used everywhere, seems more and more likely.

If you’re looking for a career in the Canadian cannabis sector, you’re in luck. Canada’s cannabis job landscape has been buzzing for the past two years, thanks to licensed producers and provincial governments looking to fill positions in agriculture, quality assurance, biotech, sales and marketing, and much more many others.

While the relationship between sex and cannabis could be developed via anecdotal evidence, the science is much harder to come by, most likely due to ongoing challenge for academics to study a plant prohibited by many countries.

One of the most hotly-debated topics in cannabis is whether driving under the influence of cannabis is the equivalent to driving while drunk. It’s an area where anecdotal evidence and scientific fact seem to be at odds, with a minority of advocates claiming that cannabis is no more dangerous than cigarettes when it comes to driving. Though still nascent, the science does however suggest another truth – that driving high is nearly as dangerous as driving drunk, particularly with novice cannabis users.

The marketing of cannabis products, derivatives and culture has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. Where the plant was once relegated to the fringes of any commercial discussion, cannabis is now a veritable industry, worth billions of dollars. In answer to reforms on both the medical and, lately, the recreational ends of the conversation, cannabis branding, advertising and design has started to take on a completely new face.

Americans spent an estimated 15 billion hours under the influence of cannabis in 2017 and THC is now the most commonly detected intoxicant in U.S. drivers. A result of the proliferation of medical cannabis in most states and the legalization of adult recreational use in some like California, Colorado and Washington, the number of people driving high has been increasing exponentially with no signs of slowing down.